Traversing hoist



H. E. HALLENBECK Dec. 13, 1932.

r TRAVERSING HOIST Original Filed Jan. 13. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet lINVENTOR jimallelzfied 9 4 ATTORNEYS m v 5 Q Dec. 13, 1932. I E.HALLENBECK TRAVERSING HOI ST Original Filed Jan. 15. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet2 IN ENTOR fififf/ r AT I'ORNEYS l in'e 3--3 of F g .7 rt partly neleva1.011,

Patented Dec. 13, 1932 UNITED STATES.

PATENT OFFICE HAROLD E. HALLENBECK, OF HUDSON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0GII'FORD-WOOD COI- PANY, 01" HUDSON, NEW YORK, ACG'RPOBATION OF NEW YORKTBAVEBSING E0181 Application filed January 13, 1930, Serial No. 480,482.Renewed September 18, 1982.

This invention relates to improvements in traversing hoists of thetrolley bucket type. Among other objects, the invention aimsto providean automatic, quickly acting device for stopping the downward travel ofthe bucket and starting the upward travel thereof when the bucketreaches the pile of material on which it is discharging, irrespective ofthe height of the material above the ground.

Heretofore, it has been necessary for the operator (who is almostinvariably unable to see the material as it discharges from the bucket)to reverse the hoistmotor when he .hinks the material is discharged,thus elevating the bucket. There is much time lost, in the course of adays work, while an operator brings a bucket to a sto waits a moment forthe discharge, an starts it up again. Operators are usually notparticularly impressed by the value of eliminating a few seconds delayin efl'ecting each operation, and frequently are deliberately dilatory.Hence, automatic return of the bucket is a most desirable feature of atrolley bucket installation.

.A further object is to provide means for sto ping the bucket in itsdownward travel WhlCh will act as a protective device so that should thebucket be lowered by accident over an obstruction, it willbeautomatically returned to the monorail. 4

Other objects will appear from the following descriptio of theinvention.

bodiment,

Fig. 1 is a. diagrammatic view of a trolley v bucket installation using;the invention;

Fig. 2 is an elevation'onanenlarged scale of the automatic bucket returndevicewhich embodies the invention "and which is shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is'a longitud I tiontaken-on the Fig. 4is-a sectionon thei'lineof Fig. 2. Referring to Fig. 1, there is' shown a part of a trolleybucket installation includin a bucket 5 which maybe of the constructiontrolley line 15 n of the preferred embodiment);

wmgsome of the,

disclosed in the A. O. Bennett Patent No. 1,743,123 dated Dec. 24, 1929.This bucket is suspended from a hoist line 6 having one end,

trolley line) then over a sheave 13 to a hoist engine 14, which controlsthe hoist line and which s preferably driven by an electric motor.

The trolley 11 is moved back and forth along the monorail 8 b means of atrolley line 15, both ends of which are secured to the trolley as shown,said trolley line passing around a sheave on an automatic take-upcarriage 16, as disclosed in the Harding Patent No. 1,631,030; and fromthe take-up sheave the trolley line passes around a sheave 17 and downto the trolley engine 18, passing around two grooved drums, as shown,for example, in the Harding application, Ser. No. 194,842, assigned tothe assigneeof'this application. From the trolley engine 18, the asses uwardly around a sheave 19 and -.t en to t e other sheave of 11. 3 Fromthe above description, it will be clear that the two engines 14 and 18work entirely r independently of each other and may effect hoisting andlowering of the bucket and the traverse of the bucket in eitherdirection. Thus the bucket may be made to descend into a pit (not shown)in order to receive a load of material. After loading, the bucket iselevated to a position immediately beneath the trolley 11 and thetrolley is then moved along vthe monorail to a position over one of thepiles of" material located beneath the monorail.

The bucketis then lowered until its trip pads 20 come in contact withthe material, whereupon the bottom of the bucket is unlatched and thematerial is discharged upon the pile.

the combination head block 12 and then back a 1 -t-o the trolleyReferring particularly to the'accompany ing drawings illustrating thepreferred em Instead of being in piles, the material may be deposited ina bin or silo, as is known in the art.

In order to protect the bucket and the trolley, the host engine 14 isprovided with a limit switch 21 which prevents the bucket from beinghoisted so far as to injure the trolley and which may also be employedto prevent lowering of the bucket beyond a certain point. The trolleyengine 18 may also have a limit switch 22, which is preferably driven inthe manner disclosed in the aforesaid Harding application. Thus, thetrolley is prevented from colliding with the supports and sheaves at theends of the monorail.

The apparatus so far described forms no part of the present invention.The advantages of the invention can only be understood, however, by anexplanation of a typical installation.

According to the present invention, the automatic return device isinterposed between dead end 6 of the hoist line 6 and the bracket 7, andis-connected with control switches in such a manner that when the hoistline hecomes slack, one of the switches is opened to stop the lowerin ofthe bucket and another switch is immediatel closed to effect upwardmovement of tie bucket. While the 80 switch operating mechanism and theswitches themselves may be mounted on a sheave which replaces sheave 13,as disclosed and claimed in a companion application filed by meherewith, Serial No. 420,483, they may be made into a separate unit, asshown herein. This simplifies installation, making it possible toinstall the device on old installations by merelfy disconnecting thedead end 6 of the cable rom the bracket 7 and then connecting theunitary device to the cable and bracket, thus avoiding the necessity oftaking off the cable, and threading it through a sheave like that shownin my above-mentioned application.

Preferably, this invention is employed in a completely automatic,electrically driven trolley bucket installation, such as the one shownand described in my application, Serial No. 491,534, filed Oct. 27,1930.

Referring now to Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the device embodying the switchoperating mechanism is shown as comprising a frame formed of a pair ofelongated side members or plates 23 secured in spaced relation to eachother by end and intermediate spacing members 24 and 25 and suitablebolts 26. The other ends of the plates 23 are pivotally mounted forvertical swinging movement on a pivot bolt 27 extending through them andthe bracket 7. Located between the side plates 23 of the frame is ablock 28 against which one end of a compression spring 29 bears.Preferably the compression spring surrounds the shank of an eye bolt 30,the shank extending through the end member 24, the spring 29 a5 and theblock 28; the end of the shank being threaded and secured to the blockby a lock nut 31. The dead end 6 of the hoist cable 6 is secured to theeye of the eye bolt 30. The other end of the spring bears against awasher 32 which is normally flat against the inner shoulder of the endmember 24. In order to adjust the tension of the compression spring 29,a hollow nut 33 is provi ed around the shank of the eye bolt, the lowerend of said nut bearing against the washer 32, as shown in Fig. 3 andhaving threaded engagement with the end member 24. The outwardlyprojecting end of the nut 33 may be non-circular, as shown, so that thespring may be compressed by means of a wrench. It will 'be clear thatthe hoist line 6 is under constant tension because of the weight of thebucket 5 and that this tension is very greatly increased when the bucketis filled w1th heavy material, such as coal, sand, gravel or the like.Thus, there is a considerable slackening in the tension of hoist line 6whenever the trip ads 20 come in contact with the top of the pi e ofmaterial, and when the bucket hits an ob struction.

Referring again to Fig. 3, it will be clear that as the eye bolt isconnected to the dead end of the line 6 and other end of the device isconnected to the stationary bracket 7 the tension of the line 6 isresisted by the tendency of the spring 29 to expand and maintain thestops 35 similar to the stops 34. As the frame.

is pivotally mounted on the bracket for vertical swinging movement itwill be clear that regardless of the tension on the line 6, the devicemay adjust itself so that the bolt 30 is always aligned with the line 6,thereby reducing wear and strain on the various parts.

In order to effect instantan'eous control of the hoist unit 14, a pairof switches 36, 37 are mounted directly on one of the side plates 23, asshown. The switches are standard limit switches and as their specificconstruction does not form a part of the present invention, they are notillustrated. switches 36, 37 has a rojecting plunger 38, 39respectively, the p ungers being reciprocable longitudinally of the sideplates 23.

At the top and bottom, the block has arms 40, 41 secured thereto, as bybolts 42, and said arms have bent ends 43, 44 extending toward eachother, asshown in Figs. 2 and 4, for contact with the respectiveplungers 39 Each of the and 38 which actuate the limit switches.

The parts are so arranged that when the spring 29 is under heavytension, the end 44 name-re will contact with the plunger 38 to closethe switch 36. When the spring 29 is relieved of some of the weight onit, the Iparts will assume the position shown in igs. 2 and 3,

wherein the contact member 39 is depressed led from the switches to themotor panel (not shown). The wiring dia am, including switches 36, 37,is descri and claimed in my co-pending a plication, Ser. No. 491,534,and hence is not isclosed here.

In practice, the spring 29 is of such stren h that it is compressed bythe bucket whet er loaded orempty, thereby causing block 28 to remain inthe outer part of the frame with switch 37 open and switch '36 closed.This completes part of the electrical circuit of the magnetic .contactorcontrolling the direction of rotation of the hoist motor to cause thebucket to descend. As long as the bucket is descending unimpeded, theswitch 36 remains closed. As soon as the bucket strikes something, sothat the cable is relieved of part of its weight, the block 28 movesinwardly toward the bracket 7 so as to close the switch 37 and switch 36will immediately open. This completes part of the electrical circuit ofthe magnetic contactor controlling the direction of rotation of thehoist motor, so that the bucket is hoisted upwardly. Immediatelyuponlifting the weight of the bucket, the parts assume the positionswherein block 28 is against stops 35, thus closing limit switch 36. Thisdoes not, however, start the lowering motion. but completes part of theelectrical circuit, so that the lowering motion can be started whendesired. The upward movement of the bucket continues until stopped by alimit switch, as switch 21, or until it is stopped by means of a masterswitch in the main control circuit.

When the invention is employed with a fully automatic trolley bucket,the bucket starts from the pit with a load, is hoisted to the monorailand stops. moves horizontally below the monorail to the pre-selectedposition, stops its traverse, and lowers. Then the bucket'return devicefunctions, stopping the bucket as it reaches the pile, and starting itup a in; and when it reaches the monorail, hoisting is stopped,traversing begins, and continues until a point over the pit is reached;the bucket then stopstraversing,descends into the pit, is loaded andstarts the cycle all over again. The cycle is repeated as long as.desired, without any attention whatever from the operator, other thanan occasionai glance to see that the apparatus is working properly.

When the invention is employed with an operator-controlled trolleybucket, the hoist and trolley engines are individually con trolled bydrum controllers worked by the operator. Only the stopping of the bucketby means of the bucket return device is automatic.

When the invention is employed in an installation employing push-buttoncontrol, all operations (except the automatic stopping and returning ofthe bucket by the return device) are effected one at a time by depressina series of ush buttons.

As the ucket return evice is designed for use with buckets of differentsizes, the spring 29 is made adjustable by nut 33. When the device is inuse witha heavy bucket, the spring will. be compressed by nut 33. Fig.3. shows the spring adjusted for a relatively li ht bucket.

he device is especially desirable when the material is deposited in binsor silos, as the operator does not know the height of thematerial in thebins and consequently would not know when to stop the lowering movementof the bucket. With the above de scribed device, however, he does nothave to touch the motor controls when the bucket is being lowered, asthe bucket will be automatically hoisted when it strikes the material,irrespective of the height of the mate rial in the bin.

In a copendin application Ser. No. 487,628, filed Octo r 9, 1930, I havedescribed and claimed a bucket return device combined with an overloadswitch.

While the hoist rope is shown and described as dead-ended to theeye-bolt 30, ohviously it could be connected to said e e-bolt through apulley mounted thereon, an deadended elsewhere. 7

Obviously, the present invention is not restricted to the particularembodiment therewe of herein shown and described.-

What is claimed is:

1. A controlling device for electric motoroperated trolley bucketscomprising, in combination, a support; a. frame connected to no thesupport; a compression spring in the frame; a block in the framereciprocable relative to the frame; the spring bearing against saidblock at one end and said frame at the other end; an eye bolt assingthrou h M the spring and the frame and secured to t e block; a pair ofarms projecting from the block; a pair of limit switches on the frame,connected in the hoist motor circuit and actuated by said arms to beclosed. and opened '120 alternately as the block reciprocates relativeto the frame thereby stopping and reversing the hoist motor; a hoistiine wound and unwound by the hoist motor and connected to the eye boltto cause the block to actuate the 2- switches responsive to the tensionon the hoist line.

2. Incombination with the elevated track oi a traversing hoist, abracket rigidlysecured to said track; a frame pivoted on the 13a 4membrscket to swing in a. vertical hne belowtheta-wk;ememberreeiproceleonthe frame; a spring on the heme urging saidreciprocnble member in one direction and 5 resisting movement thereof inthe other direction; s hoist line secured to said reciproceble member; abucket carried by said hoist line; I motor-driven drum for winding upand ps 3 out the line spair of switches 10 on the rsme; end meanssttachedto said reciprocable member for actuating said switchessiternsteiy.

In testimony, that I- claim the foregoing as my own, I have heretonflixed my signature. 15 HAROLD E. HALLENBECK.

